Lorenzo reveals true Sachsenring pace

The world championship leader showed lacklustre form in Friday's practice, and had to fight hard to assert his authority on this session - which began damp following an overnight thunderstorm - with both Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner both threatening at the top at various times during the hour.

But in the end, with the track conditions at their best, the Majorcan Yamaha rider banged in two laps of the Sachsenring that were faster than anyone else had gone all weekend. The second of those laps stopped the clock at 1m23.253s, just as the chequered flag came out.

Stoner couldn't match that, but was only 0.140s slower on the Ducati.

The recovering Valentino Rossi was a quite astonishing third fastest, having completed a total of 26 laps. His best effort on the 25th of those to lap the track in 1m22.686s.

Yesterday's pace-setter Pedrosa slipped to fourth in the end, having been on top initially and then again with only 15 minutes to go, the Honda rider exactly half a second away from the pace.

Randy de Puniet did another strong job for LCR to go fifth ahead of the second factory Honda bike of Andrea Dovizioso.

Ben Spies was seventh fastest, while Nicky Hayden, Hector Barbera and Marco Simoncelli - who crashed mid-session at Turn 11 after losing the front-end - completed the top ten.

Pos  Rider             Team               Time       Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha             1m22.253s  +
 2.  Casey Stoner      Ducati             1m22.393s  + 0.140s
 3.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha             1m22.686s  + 0.433s
 4.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda              1m22.753s  + 0.500s
 5.  Randy de Puniet   LCR Honda          1m22.859s  + 0.606s
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda              1m22.988s  + 0.735s
 7.  Ben Spies         Tech 3 Yamaha      1m23.062s  + 0.809s
 8.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati             1m23.202s  + 0.949s
 9.  Hector Barberta   Aspar Ducati       1m23.262s  + 1.009s
10.  Marco Simoncelli  Gresini Honda      1m23.392s  + 1.139s
11.  Colin Edwards     Tech 3 Yamaha      1m23.395s  + 1.142s
12.  Mika Kallio       Pramac Ducati      1m23.674s  + 1.421s
13.  Alvaro Bautista   Suzuki             1m23.703s  + 1.450s
14.  Aleix Espargaro   Pramac Ducati      1m23.709s  + 1.456s
15.  Marco Melandri    Gresini Honda      1m23.751s  + 1.498s
16.  Alex de Angelis   Interwetten Honda  1m23.839s  + 1.586s
17.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki             1m23.844s  + 1.591s